Bastogne and Battle of the Bulge tour

Take a day to soak in a deeper understanding of one of the most critical battles of World War II — the Battle of the Bulge. With your private guide, you’ll visit major sites near Liège that reveal the story of the leaders, the soldiers and the casualties of Germany’s last major offensive.

You’ll stop first at the Battle of the Ardennes museum in La Roche, which delves into the daily lives of the soldiers as well as the battle itself. Then you can walk the streets of Bastogne, a town that a US division held against severe odds. In town, the Bastogne War Museum tells the most comprehensive story of the Battle of the Bulge.

Near Bastogne, you’ll visit the Mardasson Memorial, which commemorates Americans who were killed in the battle. The Peace Woods, planted on part of the battlefield, also pay tribute to the battle’s civilian casualties and surviving veterans.

You’ll spend the day exploring battle sites, museums and memorials related to the Battle of the Bulge, the last major German offensive in World War II. Your driver and guide will pick you up in Liège and take you outside the city to several places that were important in this struggle that ultimately ended the war, plus a number of museums and memorials on the subject.

South of Liège is La Roche-en-Ardenne, a small municipality that was nearly destroyed before being liberated in January 1945. The Battle of the Ardennes Museum began as a hobby for a local father and son, who by 1993 had gathered so many items relating to the battle that they decided to open their collection to the public. The museum’s exhibits display equipment, weapons, uniforms and other items used by the soldiers in the conflict, arranged in dioramas depicting their daily lives.

You’ll spend the remainder of the day in and around Bastogne, a town that played a crucial role against the German offensive. Bastogne was under siege by German troops for several weeks while the United States’ 101st Airborne Division held the line, until General Patton’s Third U.S. Army arrived to relieve the town.

The Bastogne War Museum, just northeast of the town, is the most comprehensive museum on the Battle of the Bulge. The star-shaped building houses multimedia installations that tell the story of the battle through the eyes of four key guide characters, based on real people and events. On the same grounds as the museum is the colonnaded Mardasson Memorial, a monument — also star-shaped — to the American soldiers killed and wounded in the battle.

North of Bastogne is the Bois de la Paix or Peace Woods, a collection of 4,000 trees planted for the 50th anniversary of the Battle of the Bulge. The trees are dedicated to American veterans, Belgian combatants and all civilians and military personnel who died in the offensive. Some of the trees are specifically named for veterans who returned to the site for the anniversary in 1994 and chose trees to bear their names.

The grove is planted on part of the battlefield — you can still see the foxholes dug by the so-called Easy Company, later the subject of the book and TV series Band of Brothers. From the air, the trees form the shape of the UNICEF emblem: a mother and child.

If you have specific interests, there are many other smaller monuments in the area that you can visit, all dedicated to different companies and regiments. We can arrange your tour to visit the sites that are important to you.